VANCOUVER — The weeks-long wait is finally over. The Vancouver Whitecaps have announced striker Camilo Sanvezzo, Major League Soccer’s Golden Boot winner as the league’s top goal scorer, has officially been transferred to Queretaro FC of the Mexican League for a “multi-million dollar fee.”

“We have made the decision to part ways with Camilo Sanvezzo,” Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson said in a statement issued by the team. “In doing so, we were able to negotiate a club record transfer fee that will give us additional flexibility as we continue to build our club for the upcoming season and beyond.”

The Whitecaps did not reveal the amount of transfer money coming their way — the only mystery remaining in this saga. Under MLS rules, the Caps would receive two-thirds of any transfer fee and the league the remaining one-third.

Camilo, whose contract had been picked up for the 2014 MLS season as a club option, had agreed to a new deal with Queretaro amid much fanfare. He was practising with the team and photographed giving a thumbs-up in the club's jersey.

“We are pleased to report that we’ve come to an agreement with Camilo Sanvezzo and Vancouver Whitecaps FC,” Adolfo Rí os, Queretaro FC president, said in a statement, who then went on to concede that his club had “misunderstood” that Camilo was contractually tied to the Caps before signing him. “On behalf of our club, we sincerely regret our misunderstanding in regards to Camilo's contract earlier in the process.”

The 25 year-old Camilo spent three MLS seasons with the Caps, starting with their inaugural season in 2011. The Brazilian made a total of 92 MLS regular season appearances with Vancouver, recording 39 goals and registering 16 assists during that period. Twenty-two of those goals came in 2013, when Camilo won the Golden Boot.

Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said at a press conference last week that no discussions on a transfer fee between his club and Queretaro regarding Sanvezzo had taken place.

But with Sanvezzo forcing Vancouver’s hand by basically thumbing his nose at both the team and league, that clearly changed.

Sanvezzo made US$247,500 last season, which put him third on the team, but that number paled in comparison to fellow striker Kenny Miller’s salary of nearly $1.25 million.

Lenarduzzi said last week that the Whitecaps were open to the possibility of renegotiating Sanvezzo’s contract, but added that no discussions had taken place.

"I would suggest that the world that I live in, a contract is a contract," Lenarduzzi said at the time. "There’s no suggestion that we would not have sat down with him and actually looked at a new contract."

The loss of Sanvezzo is a major blow to both the club and Robinson, who replaced the fired Martin Rennie last month.

It creates an obvious hole up front on a team that missed the playoffs last season, but Sanvezzo’s spectacular departure also leaves the Whitecaps looking weak from a public relations perspective after the player simply refused to honour his contract.

The off-season was anything but quiet for the Whitecaps before the Sanvezzo soap opera took centre stage in the new year.

The team took six weeks to name a new coach, with Vancouver striking out in its attempt to hire former United States national team boss Bob Bradley before settling on Robinson — one of Rennie’s assistants.

Whitecaps striker Darren Mattocks also went on Jamaican television and expressed his displeasure with how he was used during the 2013 campaign.

Vancouver plays its first MLS regular-season game March 8 at BC Place Stadium against the New York Red Bulls.

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY?Goal.com reports that 18-year-old Jamaican international Andre Lewis, who was selected with the Whitecaps' second first-round pick (seventh overall) in Thursday's MLS SuperDraft, has already agreed to contract terms with the New York Cosmos of the second-tier North American Soccer League.

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